The Royle Family is a true classic of British comedy. Funny, inventive and with warm, realistic characters its certainly one of the highlights of the last few years.
However, having seen this episode shown at Christmas I have to say it seems to have lost its way. This feels like a reasonable 30 minute episode was stretched too thinly out to a full hour.
** Spoiler Alert ** taking the cast out of the family home and away on holiday was a big mistake in my view - a lazy plot device to try and inject some life into the series, and with even lazier (and unfunny) padding of the script by getting the characters to sing along to a song in the car, or asking each other what they want for dinner. The writers have used this before in the series and whilst funny the first time now it just feels old hat.
If you are a fan of the classic series, then this is probably best avoided.
However, having seen this episode shown at Christmas I have to say it seems to have lost its way. This feels like a reasonable 30 minute episode was stretched too thinly out to a full hour.
** Spoiler Alert ** taking the cast out of the family home and away on holiday was a big mistake in my view - a lazy plot device to try and inject some life into the series, and with even lazier (and unfunny) padding of the script by getting the characters to sing along to a song in the car, or asking each other what they want for dinner. The writers have used this before in the series and whilst funny the first time now it just feels old hat.
If you are a fan of the classic series, then this is probably best avoided.